The Commonwealth Games - an Olympiad of the defunct British Empire - have once again confirmed the Olympic Spirit, if it ever existed, has been smothered by nationalism, materialism, egoism and the cunning of political leaders who have known since the beginning of civilization that with â€˜bread and gamesâ€™ they can distract the public to the point where they can pursue, without protest, their own nefarious games.

Australia, the host of this Olympiad which involves England and its former colonies, has outdone itself both in spectacle, medals won and national chauvinism. Few developed nations have been anesthetized with sport as much as has Australia where one major sporting extravaganza succeeds another leaving the running of the country â€“ and the systematic dismantling of its once formidable welfare state - to the politicians while the plebs enjoys more games. One often wonders if Australians read anything else but the sports pages in a country where a football playerâ€™s sprained ankle can be the first item on a news broadcast, preceding the 35 killed in Iraq that day or the thousands missing in an earthquake â€“ somewhere in the world. Australia spent thirty million dollars alone on the gaudy closing ceremony of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, money that could have been spent more appropriately for the victims of a hurricane that lashed northern Queensland demolishing the livelihood of thousands while the Games went on.

The Melbourne Games enthusiastically embraced the main principle of American Culture: â€˜Winning is ueber alles â€“ueber alles in the worldâ€™. Coming second or third (except if Australian) is not worth wasting air-time, time more profitably utilized by slipping in yet another ad from sponsors who utilized home-grown and well-known athletes to promote their products. Non-Australian non-winners were simply not worth talking to even if they had offered the most memorable and courageous resistance, to wit the womenâ€™s marathon where the Australian gold medalist fought shoulder to shoulder around the final lap with her African foe. After crossing the finish line the African simply vanished from the TV screen which was filled instead at infinitum with the winner who, admittedly, was an amazing 38 year-old mother of two. One would have thought after such a titanic struggle the winner, at least, should have made some gesture of admiration, compassion or fair play to her 20 year old African rival, a slip of a girl. No, the winner, like almost every other winner, was far too preoccupied with herself, far too eager to milk the adulation without sharing any part of it, far too egoistical to even acknowledge a foe who had made an otherwise mundane race an unforgettable event, at least for those who still believe such Games can be classified as â€˜sportâ€™ in the dictionary.

If some kind of sporting spirit survived it was among the smaller, poorer nations whose athletes, still holding out their hands, still smiling at the other, had not yet realized, as had the Australians, that winning is everything and you must never share your fortune with the losers. This one-time â€˜true-blue spiritâ€™ Down Under was in part salvaged by rural townspeople who contributed sports equipment and money to athletes sent to the Games literally shoeless by their governments. Finally there was the self-sacrifice (or stupidity) of an army of 15,000 volunteers who worked without pay day after day for up to 14 hours ensuring the Games went off like clockwork â€“ thus enabling the corporate sponsors and wheedling organizers to amass fat financial benefits since they did not have to fork out wages for thousands of workers necessary to staff the various venues.

Needless to say the corporate backers of the sporting extravaganza feathered their nests handsomely (and were profusely thanked for doing so by the organizers) while the gullible public paid for it, either as volunteers or in salty ticket prices. The â€˜thank the sponsorsâ€™ ritual is another Australian habit, as if those corporate entities offered their financial support without profit (if nothing else in advertising and public relations). But why should that surprise anyone? After all is this not a common setup in this new millennium of soulless materialism practiced below the mask of public benevolence?ends.